How to get better signal?

I've read a little bit, but far from nominally proficient in Linux or Android. So you may have to draw it in crayon to help me out. Where I live has horrible signal, no internet, so I'm using PDANET and if I'm lucky I get one bar of 3G.

So after doing a little research I learned that a rooted phone can be reprogrammed with a different radio signal, I'm guessing. Does anyone have experience with this? What's the best way to pull it off?

I tried it and got no improvement. My signal usually pegs out at about 2 bars unless I'm using 3g for some reason. It'll usually jump up 1 or 2 bars when 3g is being used. Holding the phone next to a D2, the Dinc is usually 1 bar under, but the signal strength are usually dead even. There are times, though, where my phone will actually have more bars.

I've read a little bit, but far from nominally proficient in Linux or Android. So you may have to draw it in crayon to help me out. Where I live has horrible signal, no internet, so I'm using PDANET and if I'm lucky I get one bar of 3G.

So after doing a little research I learned that a rooted phone can be reprogrammed with a different radio signal, I'm guessing. Does anyone have experience with this? What's the best way to pull it off?

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If your rooted you can flash a new radio to see if that helps. At home I never show more then 1 bar, however I never have service issues. I've noticed that the bars don't represent the signal properly.

Premium Member

I use the Network Extender as I have a poor signal too. While it helps your cell signal, it doesn't help 3G. Another version is supposed to be out that will boost 3G, but I don't know when that'll be available.

The reason I switched to the Droid and Verizon from ATT and iPhone was due to signal issues. I know, no big surprise. The problem was actually a fairly recent problem. We used to have 5 bars on one side of our office building and 1 or 2 on the other (where our offices were located) with somewhat frequent dropped calls. I bought a wi-ex extender and placed the antenna where there was a solid 5 bars. I consistently got between 3-5 bars with no dropped calls. About once every 2 or 3 months, the wi-ex would need to be rebooted. Anyway, overnight (around the time iPhone 4s came out) our signal dropped to 0-2 bars in the office. I went to where the extender was and it was 2 bars there, too. I unplugged the wi-ex to see what would happen and we basically couldn't use our phones. ATT said there were no issues when I called. Someone else that works down the hall was told 2 towers were down in the area with no idea of when they'd be back up. Anyway, the point of this long post is the wi-ex antennas do work, but they aren't cheap.

First off, I completely agree that the bars do not accurately represent signal. I've noticed lately that even looking at -dBm is not always spot on either. I live in a rural area, and average -95dBm, which, according to most, is nearly no signal at all. Sometimes if weather conditions etc... are just right, I can pull an amazing signal at the house. The bars or dBm's don't change, but I notice the difference in how long it takes to pull up a web page, our if I can watch you tube videos without constant buffering. Unfortunately though, those instances are rare.

The odd thing though, is if I go into town near a verizon tower (yes it is a vzw tower, I checked) I may still show -95dBm, but the signal is consistently lightening fast. So basically the moral of the story is, don't become overly concerned about ANY form of signal measurement on your phone. If it works, it works, if not, move ten feet and try again...

And as a side note, don't bother calling vzw for help. There's nothing they can do. I actually had a girl at *611 tell me there were no towers in a 50 mile radius of my house. But please don't get me started on complete lack of knowledge of vzw employees. its basic economics; as their market share grows, customer service worsens. Just an observation...